THE Ram-Page - Bentham’s annual summer show and sale of rams - saw 448 go under the hammer.

Topping the sale was a pure Beltex ram from James and Joe Wannop, of Heaton, which sold for £1,550 to Frankland Farms of Rathmell.

The Wannop family also claimed top honours in the cross-bred ram section with their Texel x Beltex shearling selling for £1,250, also to Frankland Farms. Their consignment of six rams averaged a fantastic £1,020.

The cross-bred shearling rams enjoyed a buoyant trade from start to finish, with the average for the year up by £70.77.

In the Texel section, the Kaker Mill flock of James Robinson claimed the top price with his home-bred shearling ram selling for £1,250 to Mr Blythman, of Bishopton. James' pen of Texel shearling rams averaged £830.

The Suffolk section was once again topped by Joe Towers, of Tunstall Hall, with a shearling ram achieving £780.

In the Charollais section, the shearling ram average was up by £103.67 on the year and was topped by Charles Marwood, of Whenby, at £500, also with a Shearling Ram.

Meanwhile, Bentham’s annual Genus Dairy Extravaganza once again attracted a tremendous entry of 55 dairy cattle.

The strong show classes gave the judge Peter Hewitt a difficult task and, after careful deliberation, he chose as champion the pedigree heifer, Lordsplain Spectrum Wendy, from David Martin, of Levens. A modern milk heifer, she was recorded as giving 38kgs daily and was bought by the judge for £2,000.

The reserve champion ticket was awarded to regular consignor Jeff Burrow, of Grayrigg, for his first prize commercial heifer. She was also purchased by the judge for £2,050.

However, the top sale price of the day of £2,120 was achieved by the only coloured heifer forward from Mike and Ken Robinson, of Farleton. She went home with Ted and Alex Walton of Wrea Green.

The overall average for newly-calved dairy cattle was £1,455, which reflected a decent trade, with better sorts generally between £1,500 and £1,850.